Last One Standing
by Reiya Inc
Summary: What would you do if everything you had and were was taken from you? Rouge reflects upon death and how it's become a part of her life.


AN: Okay, I guess I was kinda depressed when I wrote this, but it's from Rouge's POV. (please excuse the spelling and grammar errors) Hope you like it and please review. [standard disclaimers apply]

  
Last One Standing  
  
Death's a funny thing isn't it? It's funny how people make it out to be this huge, horrifying thing, when it's not. It's simple really. Your heart stops beating, your blood stops flowing, your brain stops sending those really fast messages to all the parts of your body. You die. Nothing fancy, but yet it's something special. Hell, it's a once in a lifetime thing. I laugh at my irony.  
  
I used to be one of those people who were afraid to die. At one time in our life we all are. We were all fed the lie as kids that death was some horrible, evil thing that we must run away and hide in some corner from. That's all we needed, some little paranoid kids afraid of the dark and the things that live in it. But, I digress. Like I said before, I used to be one of them.  
  
I don't really care anymore. Life has no point for me. No, wait, I take that back, life does have a point, death. The point of life is death. How many times have you heard that before? At first I didn't get it, but think of it this way: You live all your life; gain all that you do, just to end it all in nothing. In the end you die, everybody does.  
  
I wish death would take me away with the others, I'm ready. But it won't, it never comes for the prepared ones. I watch the shocked expressions on people's faces when I tell them that. It's amusing how they don't understand. There's a certain point you can reach when life holds no more meaning, no more promises of a better tomorrow. I have reached that point. For me it was when I learned everything I had worked so hard for was gone in the blink of an eye, all the hurt you went through unnecessary. I remember that day.  
  
Before I met him, I guess I really didn't have a reason to live, but I kept feeding myself all these lies that I was needed, and it worked. But when I met Knuckles, he became my reason to live, to want to be better. I loved him, I still do. He was the only person who loved me for me. I'm trying not to cry, but it hurts to remember him.  
  
It hurts to remember all of them.  
  
It shouldn't have happened this way.  
  
None of it should have happened.  
  
After Shadow died, a piece of me was gone, even if I didn't realize it. I joined forces with Sonic and everyone to defeat Robotnic. I was given a new reason to live. We all were prepared, each time we fought against him, for whatever new toy he threw at us. But we weren't prepared for him to give up. He had finally reached his limit and realized that he never would win, so he self-destructed his base. Tails and I were on the outskirts so we had time to get away, but Knuckles and Sonic... I don't care that I'm crying now.  
  
I was the one that told Amy, Tails couldn't. I'll never forget her face, the way her eyes held so much sorrow in them. I never thought someone could say so much with out ever speaking. She cried right there, long and hard. I think she might have gone through ten Kleenex boxes. But once it was over, she didn't cry again. She told me everything during that time, how she met him, when she first fell in love with him and why she loved him. I stayed at her house that night, I said it was because I wanted to make sure she was alright, but I was too afraid to go home and find it empty. A piece of me was taken away.  
  
Home for me was Angel Island, a few months earlier Knuckles asked me to stay there with him, and I did. It was so beautiful. An island in the sky, our island. We'd watch the sunset and count the stars like those sappy couples you see on TV. I'd give anything just to go back and count even just one more star with him. But that bastard had to take him away. The only thing that remotely gives me comfort is the fact that someday I'll meet Robotnic again, and he'll feel what it's like to have your heart ripped out. I'll torture him until he can't cry anymore, I'll make him drink his blood and taste his own death. Yes, that brings me comfort, that's the day I'm waiting for. I smile; I get even more shocked expressions after that.  
  
A few days later we had the funeral. I sat by Tails, who had Amy on the other side. It was raining, so I couldn't tell if Amy and Tails were crying or not. I was okay; I guess I was still in shock and denial. But when they put Knuckles' coffin in the ground, that's when it hit me. I would never see him again. I would never feel his arms around me. I would never here his voice call my name ever again. I started crying, and I couldn't stop. The funeral ended, I didn't. I sat there staring at his final resting place. Everyone left, even Tails and Amy. I sat there, eyes unmoving. My whole life was buried right before my eyes. I don't know how long I was there, but I woke up lying against his headstone, soaking wet. It was freezing, ice needles pricked my skin, but my heart was dead. Another piece of me was gone.  
  
I couldn't remember what woke me up, but then I felt someone pick me up. Knuckles, he was taking me home after I had fallen asleep somewhere. It all seemed like a dream, and it was. I looked up into two blue worried eyes. No. I didn't want him to take me home. I wanted to stay with Knuckles. Why couldn't they see that? I heard Tails voice echo inside my head. 'Oh my god, Rouge! You're freezing. Hold on a little while longer, you'll be okay.' He told me. 'No!' I wanted to scream back, 'Nothing will ever be okay, Tails!' but I couldn't. I wanted to make him put me down, but I couldn't. Why was I so weak?  
  
I remember waking up in a white room with Tails and Amy standing over me. Amy hugged me as soon as I opened my eyes. They started to talk to me, I heard a little of what they said but then I zoned out, my mind was far away with Knuckles. I guess I had been asleep at the cemetery for a couple days. They let me go. I had nowhere to go but home. Amy talked to me and I told her I was all right. I wasn't, she knew I wasn't. I knew she wasn't all right either, but there was nothing we could do about it. I had to go home. So I did, I flew to Angel Island, my heaven and my hell.  
  
I didn't hear from the others for quite some time. Then one day Tails flew up to the island. His eyes were wet. More tears. More pain. Something's wrong. He told me. Amy was in a car accident. A drunk driver had hit her and killed them both. I went to her funeral; another piece of me was gone. I still don't quite understand it all. Was life trying to teach me something? I tried living right after that. Taking nothing for granted, but it didn't work.  
  
A month later Tails was working on his newest project. Some kind of car with all kinds of gizmos on it. Something went wrong. It exploded. Tails was killed. Whatever little piece of me there was left, was now gone. I had nothing and I was nothing. I was completely gone. They couldn't find Tails' body, so the coffin was empty. Empty. Like me. Why Them and not me? I screamed at the sky, asking it what it wanted me to know. It never answered. Or did it? What if life wasn't teaching me a lesson, but death? I wasn't needed anymore; none of us were since Robotnic died. We were useless. So what if death was teaching me my purpose? I know it sounds silly, but think about it. What good are heroes, without enemies? I laugh at the simplicity of it all.  
  
My purpose was served, my meaning gone. I have nothing left to do except wait for the inevitable. I used to play this game as a kid where a bunch of us stand on these short little logs and balance as long as they can and the winner is the last one standing. Well, I guess I'm the last one standing in our game and the prize is loneliness. If they only knew what it was like to wake up every morning alone. To pick up the phone, but realize there's no one to call. Sometimes, I can almost see Knuckles guarding the Master Emerald. I can almost see Sonic taunting him and running circles around him. I can almost see Amy picking flowers and Tails showing off his latest invention. I'll see them and run towards them, but they're gone before I can get there.  
  
I hate it when I grasp reality. I hate it when I cry myself to sleep. I hate it when I dream about him and wake up to find it's not true. Chaos guards the Emerald now, so I can't even give myself that reason to live. I can't take it anymore. I'm going to learn the lesson for once. I'll do death a favor.  
  
The edge is so close now; I can't see the bottom. I feel the ground beneath my feet fade away as I step off. They say that your heart stops before you hit the ground, I'll have to find that out. My brain tells me to fly away, but my heart keeps me still. I'm falling so fast now, into Knuckles' arms. Goodbye Angel Island.  
  
Death's a funny thing isn't it?

  
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Good? Bad? Please tell me! This is my first Sonic fic and I wrote it at 12 at night, so please tell me how it was!

-Reiya


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